Washington — Rick Perry has been governor of the nation’s second most populous state since December 2000. In 2012, he briefly ran for the Republican presidential nomination. He was the guest at a June 19 Monitor luncheon for reporters.

On the surge of unaccompanied children from Central America entering the US:

“This unaccompanied alien children issue ... has the potential to be an absolute catastrophe, a humanitarian catastrophe.... I consider it to be a failure of diplomacy by the United States.”

“Immigration reform is down the list of things you have to do.... The American people do not trust the federal government until they secure the border ... with boots on the ground, with strategic fencing in the metropolitan areas, with technology.”